Wailing and Shrieking Substances

[myrdale]

Well guys once upon a time i set my mind to it that i would work all my skills up and get the 7th shawl, then about that time the 8th came out and i worked towards it. Now i am intent on getting the PoK earring.

So i do the research and it looks like to get smithing from 188 to 235ish (hopefully 240 or 250) i will have to do Acrylia armor, Shadow Scream, or Mistletow Cutting Sickles.

Well i dislike tempers alot and farming ore, and the mistletow sickles are looking too expensive so i decide to go the shadow scream route.

I go to Hollowshade and i kill like 40 dogs and only get 1 shrieking substance.

Needless to say, it will take LOTS of these and i didnt even try for the other two components.

Is it really this bad or am i killing the wrong thing? I read a couple of post where people said kill here or kill there, but couldnt find anything solid.

Please help = )

[Slippyblade]

<rant>Quests are a pathetic and market destroying reason to do tradeskills</rant>

Ok, anyways... In hollowshade, you need to manipulate the war to get wolves or bears to occupy the southern islands. The ones on the islands drop the substances MUCH more frequently that the regulars around the zone... Here is the kicker. The substances are 10 times easier to farm than the swirling shadows.

[Silound]

Ok, few observations that may help.

1) Like Slippy said, south islands. There is a good writeup in the Quests involving tradeskills forum on how to manipulate war. At 61, you should have nothing to round up a large group of mobs and AE (fastest) or melee or whatever them into the ground. A full clearing of island camps can net up to about a stack on a good round.
2) Swirling shadows...You have Shadeweaver's or Twilight Sea. Personally, I got a bunch of newbs together, got them into SWT, and set them up in camps around the zone. Then I paid them 10pp per shadow they brought me, with an extra 20pp bonus per full stack. On guy actually grabbed near 5 stacks in 2 hours (was like 4 and 12 or some odd off number). Meanwhile, I got a friend to to help me clear TS shadows. I spent about 2.5k to the newbs, and now have 2 mules full of shadows. Now If I could get some stupid Shrieking Subs...YMMV on that
3) If dogs are unyielding in Hollowshade, try TM. I found that dogs in TM have only a slightly lesser drop rate, but they require more effort to kill. However, you can also kill wandering aliens and grimlings to collect acrylia/windstones to either sell or use. I prefer TM for that reason if I'm just out to farm.
4) Bears are the most common mob to see in the south. They are the easiest to have take over and the easiest mobs. Wolves require multiple cycles of the war, and are more often than not, very un cooperative in attacking where you want them to.
5) I'm not seeing a race anywhere listed, but as a ranger, I assume you arent Human, which puts out a very nice skillup path other than SS.

Good luck!

Silound
Retired Smith and Troubadour of Prexus

[Zeralenn]

He'a a half-elf, so no cultural there.

Personally I just wander into Hollowshade every now and again and see what's up in the southern islands. I'm an opportunistic farmer.

But yes, the key is the southern islands -- NOT the chieftain camp -- but the huts in the islands in the southeast part of the zone.

...Zera

[Bregalad]

If you have the oomph for it, you can also get swirlies from Xi in Maiden's. And rake in much AA exp from it as well.

[Taushar]

Agree with the posters, you have to hunt the south islands for the substances. I was there last night and I am getting pretty good at starting the war. I do it the lazy way. I don't move from the original Grim camp near the south islands at all.

First of all, when you kill the chief Grim to start the war, Owlbears from the caves always start attacking the Grims to the south. Although I have done this only a few times but it happened everytime for me. I just kill the Grim defenders and hang out at the south island to cast AoE to owlbears. Usually end up with a stack within 2-3 AoE casting.

The rule is that if a force occupy 2 of 3 places, they are too thin in their defence and will not win the war. Otherwise, the defenders always win.

Then I look for messages to see who attacks next. Since the Owlbear caves and south islands are occupied by Owlbears at this point, it's easy for the next step. If wolves attack the south island and I don't want to lose Owlbears, I just kill the wolf attackers and preserve Owlbear on south islands.

So if I wanted to wolves to win the south island while the owlbears occupy the two areas, I don't have to do anything when wolves attack south island since they will always win. If they attack the owlbear caves, I try to help out the owlbears since it's easy to kill the attackers.

That is a short version of how to manipulate the war. I have never had to reset the whole zone so I can't comment on that.

Taushar

[Mad Baker Hobbitt]

Bregelad is correct. I like getting them from ME, simply for the AA's I get as a bonus. This is a hard enough skill as it is, so my thoughts are make the farming more interesting....

Hopperr

[mediamogul99]

I hunted wolves in TM last nite and got 1 and 1/2 stacks of wailing substance! I highly recommend TM.

Cheers,

Shamzu Spiritmaster
47 Shaman
Stromm
202 Smith and climbing

PS TY to Zera and her guide!!!!!!!

[Knomercy]

hrm

I just started the shadowscream, but heres some stuff I found.

I went into hollowshade, found that the sonic wolves were in the south, so i started killing them. I was getting a component about 1 in 4 kills. Very nice. So i would recommend getting a chanter and any other AE class, have them help you out.

Pull all the mobs to one spot, one AE from any class, cleric, wiz, mage, even necro prolly, or bard for that matter = all dead.

Loot them up, by the time their looted, you'll have a respawn.

After I did this, I killed the owlbear boss's, not really knowing how to manipulate the war other than killing them to start, they ran down to the south part and poof replaced all the sonic wolves.

Rinse, repeat, had enough for hundreds of combines.

PS: Save up PP and just buy the swirling shadows from bazaar. I'm blowing 800p a stack per, just to max smithing as PP is not an issue with me. Should be able to get much cheaper than i'm paying though.

[Slippyblade]

If you are only paying 800 a stack, you are gettting a deal. On Xev, if you can find em under 1k a stack you're doing well. I refuse to pay for them though as it only encourages the price gougers.

[muana]

shadowscream

Knomercy is right, AE is the only way to go...1 2 3 4 stacks and hour is pretty easy to do with someone pulling and another doing the AE (catastrophe, upheaval work awesomely), bears it is best to use no DS though with the wolves a small (10-15pt) DS can make sure that none of them survive, cause they like to run and I am lazy and want them all just dead.

Realize the time it takes to get a stack of shadows though will be a while...solo I get about 1 stack an hour...but can earn over 1k an hour elsewhere even while getting xp....so again like the others have said, buy them.

You might think they are gougers but in the long run it might end up cheaper for you if you pay the higher price, since it may lead to more people doing it for sales....thus increasing competition and lowering the price.

Economics of Scale just a passing thought

[Slippyblade]

I can only dream of 1k an hour. That is simply not possible as a melee, so there is no way imaginable that paying those outrageous prices makes any sense. And on EQ, the market is different. The prices on things like Silk Swatches and Spider Silks has been steadily CLIMBING because there are people who will pay these ridiculous prices.

[Knomercy]

its these stupid aid quests that come out, where everyone wants to max our all their trade skills as fast as possible, and money is no object..

I know im paying more than I should for stupid crap like jord meats, vann toes, swirling shadows, and the other various crap that I use on combines..

[Zeralenn]

1kpp for a stack of swirling shadows?? :shock:

We've done this to ourselves, kiddies. The only reason people will sell for those kinds of prices for something that drops off a level 5 mob is because people will actually pay it. (And no, I don't buy leather padding either; I get all my leather padding ingredients from vendor mining and Stonebrunt).

The most -- the MOST -- I would ever pay for swirling shadows is 10pp each. Maybe. Only if I am desperate. And there is no reason to get desperate.

I just take my level 40 druid up to the entrance of Paludal in Shadeweavers and play "skeleton roundup". It's fun but you have to make sure you don't run into any unsuspecting lowbies. I just get a nice horde of skeletons running after me and AOE them. Doesn't take me too long before I have a couple stacks of swirling shadows. Rinse and repeat as the urge hits.

The wailing and shrieking substances are not as easy because at level 40 my druid isn't quite up to AOEing them en masse. As a melee it's a little slower for farming. But, you know, I still manage to stay ahead of the repop rate on the southern islands, so I don't think I am doing a lot worse with just plain old fashioned killing.

...Zera

[Suva]

Because the shadows sell for so much anymore, the places they drop are usually overcrowded. I know at least on Brell, several times there was a list going for the island in TS and the other spots had so many people in them that as soon as one popped you had 10 people racing for who got to it first. Some to farm for cash, some to farm to do thier own smithing.